After reading this article and some online review, I will definetly want to watch this film.

Confronting history is not easy. I think Europeans/Americans do a better job on that than us Asians. I lived in Hong Kong for long time, and traveled exenstively in China and Japan. The anti-Japanese violence in China and lorries and vans ran by right wing nuts on Tokyo streets not only makes me uncomfortable, and makes me even question the sanity of the folks behind them. It seems no one remembered the madness and asburdity of war, spinned history text books, and wilful blindness to violence and aggression to others in their own history. Did people remember that we used to call Whites, Turks and Asian Minor nomands as barbarians? Victory over them is glory, death under their blade is the other's bloodthurst. What statements that send me shiver up my spine.

Films like this need to be seen. Books like All Quiet on the Western Front and Catch-22 need to be taught in schools back in Asia.

1. Japan had no Nazi party that took control, but the same constitutional monarchy of the 19th century remained in place.
2. Japan committed lots of warcrimes abroad, but no genocide of one racial/ethnic group WITHIN their own country.

Both 1 and 2 means that postwar soul-searching took a different character in Japan. Most Japanese thought that the apologies to Asian countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan), the normalization with China and Korea in the 1970's, and the billions of dollars in aid to both countries were sufficient. Many Japanese therefore, while completely aware of the harm did to other Asian nations, don't understand why China is bringing up the past more and more every year.

And similar to Germany, Japanese movies and books do indeed also draw attention to the fact that Japanese were also victims (200,000 dead in the atomic bombings alone, 100,000 in the bombing of Tokyo, 70,000 POW's killed by the Soviets, etc.) These are memories of their grand- and great grand parents.

Most of the killings committed by the Nazis happenede outside Germany. Before 1933, about 500.000 jews were living in Germany. Most of them were able to leave the country before they were forbidden to do so.
"Only" 150.000 or so of the 6 million jews killed were german citizens. Most of the others were from Poland and the Sowjet Union.
So both countries did most of their killings abroad.

1.All Japanese history textbooks clearly mention the Nanjing massacre, and that a great number of innocent civilians were killed by the Japanese.
2. However, the textbooks either abstain from giving the real figures, or mention "between 40,000 and 250,000" which is the same estimate as Western historians and many good Chinese historians give.
3. This is less than the official Chinese government number, which has been growing every year and is therefore not inspiring much credibility.

Well, Japanese text books do mention Nanjing, but merely glosses over it for fear of having their children lose face.

They also conveniently forget to mentions the hundreds of thousands of Rapes by Japanese forces. Many of these rape victims were very young children. It may also be the likely reason Japan is the Pedophile capital of the world where sexual images of children are legal and where young girls underwear can be purchased in vending machines.

American text books gloss over the Atomic Bombs and Viet Nam war crimes. Your point being? At least these facts are mentioned in both US and Japanese textbooks. Many nations conveniently omit their own misdeeds. China and European Colonial powers included.

As for the second part how does pornography laws, insufficient as they may be in certain cases have anything to do with anything about WWII crimes? That's just a racist and judgmental blanket statement. Every country has sexual predators and exploitative pornography with various degrees of ineffectual laws.

only if you can read chinese history, chinese were also very good at raping. most of china was governed not by the peking government but they were governed by local marauding bands all over the countries and it was their usual practice to attack their enemies and rape.
if you are outside of china, try to read "wild swan" of jung chang.

In fact it’s regrettable that we Chinese are not capable of keep our history materialistically speaking but what my grandparents told me during my childhood about the horror they had lived during the WWII under the Japs’ oppression for sure is far more grounded than any building bedrock that had knocked down by the government to build malls or skyscrapers. That it ought to be very clear to everybody that an eventual lack of some old building from that time cannot constitute an advantage to be taken for Japs or their current ideological allies to carry out any sort of revisionism, no matter how slight it may be to try to mend the trade ties between the countries.

"Japan’s inability to issue sufficient apology for its aggressions in the second world war—as compared with Germany’s good example, say—or to pay reparations to its victims, is perpetually offensive to China."
Then, what about the Chinese Government's inability to apologise to the Chinese people? Those rioting goons were carrying pictures of Mao who killed many times more Chinese in a few decades than the Imperial Japanese Army and every one of their predecessors combined from 200 BCE to AD 1945. I don't think it makes any sense.

You can be sure that the Chinese people will know to handle both tragedies at the right time and the atrocities under the commies mismanagement will never fit as smokescreen for the Japs to soothe its behavior in WWII.

Well. It's true that the Japanese were damn efficiently wiping out the poor souls of China. Then, it's also quite true that the Communists, who are quite busy nowadays advertising themselves as brave war heroes to enhance their non-existent legitimacy to rule over and brutalise their own people, were actually more than happy to stand aside and enjoy seeing the Japanese eliminating their NATIONALIST compatriots en masse practically all the way from the Capitulation in Shanghai to August 1945. It's really pathetic for people in the free world to give this bunch of thuggish autocrats any extra diplomatic credibility by giving them false credit over issues of human rights in China several decades ago to which they gave no regard whatsoever at the very time of the event.

Who are you to judge the Chinese? The Jews never forgot. You are saying we should let the holocaust wreaked upon the Chinese all over East and SE Asia by the japanese be forgotten? Your bias is not appreciated.
Nevertheless the opinion in the article is ultimately but that of the writer. One with inadequate empathy but seeking more to mollify a new friend - the Japanese - than anything else.
I too would had been prepared to accept the post war baby-boomers Japanese and the X and y generations but atonement for past sins must be made to demonstrate this. A tangible way to achieve this would be for the Japanese government to return the the Diaoyus or Senkakus to the Chinese. Then a new era can begin in Chinese-Japanese relationship and bygones be bygones.
However, to augment this new start, the Japanese PM should also make a visit to the Chinese war memorials and lay a wreath the way it was done by one of the earlier post war Japanese PM (I forget his name) in Singapore, and the way the Singapore PM laid a similar wreath at the Indonesian memorial for the two Indonesians who were caught and hanged for murder and sabotage.
Tokyo need to consider the bigger picture and accept that peace will come only with humble acts of atonement rather than acts of misplaced pride and arrogance. Saying sorry is meaningless without meaningful acts of contrition. Visiting the Yaskuni Shrine without visiting the non Japanese war deaths memorials and insisting on clinging on to laundered stolen property is certainly not the way to salve the festering wounds. More an affront than anything else and an act which encourages a desire to inflict the Japanese a final defeat before the day is done insofar as its Asian neighbours are concerned.
If it is fate, if it is destiny then perhaps it is Mr Noda who has been chosen to do that which will close a painful chapter and open a new one. Will Mr Noda carry the responsibility for Japan and the Japanese people to close the page for their fathers' sins? Will he accept this as his responsibility and legacy for his people and country?

"Japan’s inability to issue sufficient apology for its aggressions in the second world war—as compared with Germany’s good example, say—or to pay reparations to its victims, is perpetually offensive to China."

Hitler's apology was the bullet he put through his own head. I guess innocent future generations of Japan must continually grovel because Hirohito didn't blow his own brains out?

Anyway, all this bluster over the past few weeks is meant to get news outlets talking about something other than where was Xi Jinping for the first fortnight in September??? Maybe hanging out with Sora Aoi?

The main issue here is not whether the war criminals have been punished enough.
It also matters little what individual Japanese believes in private, just as there are neo-nazis around the world, there'll always be some who support the policies/ideologies from imperial Japan. The problem arise when influential politicians and those who are suppose to represent Japanese people publicly denounce past atrocities while many of its victims and relatives are still alive. These people are only giving ammunitions for the nationalists in other countries.
Everyone knows that the CCP (who will not last forever) whitewashes its history and their crimes will be remembered by Chinese across the world (even if they censor everything on the mainland), but if Japan is to be any better, it should learn from Germany, face the horrors of its past (not just what happened to itself) in order to build a better future for the future generation by improving relations with its neighbours. If Japan continue to wait for China to apologise for past atrocities (or use that as excuse/comparison), then nothing changed since Japan first started to learn from China thousands of years ago. However, I feel in many cases, people would rather keep what they believe to be their national pride (even if it means supporting the right-wing extremists)than see the bigger picture.

Perhaps the west had more interest to question the whereabouts of the shortlisted would be head of CCP than the Chinese nationals. To say that the anger shown in recent demonstrations was not real is a complete BS coming out from the mind of a anti China lunatic who has a distorted view about China's success. Let it be, Jude.

Japan hasn't been waiting for China to apologize. They've been waiting for their previous apologies to be heard/acknowledged. Face it, apologies are never good enough. If there's a need to distract from domestic unrest, there's no better "uniter" than jingoism. It's just curious to me how it's relatively commonplace to see signs promoting Dokdo or the plight of comfort women at Korean restaurants and other establishments. However, I can't think of a single Takeshima sign at any Japanese establishment. Just welcoming maneki-neko and salt piles at the doorway.

Many Chinese are aware of these apologies, the problem lies with the right wing politicians who keep saying controversial statements in the hope of making themselves sound 'tough' and win some support at home (and it's also frightening the amount of support they get). There's no denying that most modern day Japanese have many good qualities and are generally much more peaceful people (probably because they were industrialised earlier than their neighbours), but the few bad nuts will continue to give Japan a bad image abroad unless people stop supporting them by keeping them in power, or allowing them to get away with hurtful comments. Think about it, even if the victims and the relatives thinks that Japanese might never repent, at least you're not giving them the reason to further doubt the sincerity of those apologies by having someone denying everything later. Although I think Germany is very harsh on their historians who voice their doubts on the holocaust, but at least it gives enough closure for its victims for Germany to integrate with the rest of Europe again.

But you said, "It also matters little what individual Japanese believes in private, just as there are neo-nazis around the world, there'll always be some who support the policies/ideologies from imperial Japan."

Of course there's going to be some twit extremist politician. After decades of frustration at bending over backwards to apologize and just being forgotten or told, "Oh, that isn't enough," of course there's going to be some popularity gained by politicians who act that way. Jingoism presented as strength yields jingoism presented as strength. Forgiveness -- or even acknowledgement that current generations are not responsible for the crimes of previous generations -- cannot come from the Japanese, by definition. They'll keep issuing apologies that will just not be enough.

The comparison with Germany is interesting because I wonder if this could have been "purged" by the complete overthrow of the monarch -- or perhaps even as far as the partitioning (and subsequent reconstitution) of Japan. As the German state today is completely different from the German state of 30 years ago (much less 60), the Japanese regime may not have "changed" sufficiently. The only way to rectify it is for either the Japanese state to go away or the CCP. I'd personally prefer the CCP to go away and China to be divided into distinct countries representative of distinct local cultures and peoples.

The Economist says: "THE horrors of the Nanjing massacre of 1937 have long stoked the imagination of Chinese artists."
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By saying that the Economist is being too modest on behalf of Americans.
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With horrors of holocaust, has anyone counted how many anti Germany nazi films and dramas, war or otherwise, stoked out of imagination of American artists from Hollywood alone?
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Compared to Chinese artists in terms of number of films produced on such affairs, my guess is well over 100 to 1 in ratio in favor the American artists.
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IMO, what Chinese film makers have done is not enough and far insufficient to remind Chinese youth the Japanese war time atrocities, and to alert the world of recent rise of Japanese right wing imperialism creeping behind the US back or taking advantage the slack time from the US's "China containment" policy and bandwagon.
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According to news a few months ago, the US Defense Department has a sizable annual budget to sponsor film and entertainment industry in the US for films to projecting positive images of American forces.
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I am not saying all these are wrong and indeed I appluad such sponsorships.
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But come on Anlects, you don't need to be objective or unbaised, but being so blind to truth?

PM Koizumi was more right wing than the current government (with his stupid symbolic acts of visiting Yasukuni... etc), yet Sino-Japanese relations were well maintained and the damage managed well on both sides. When the left leaning Democratic Party of Japan came into power in 2010 it was the most China friendly Japanese government to ever come into power. Chinese expansionist ambitions in the East and South China seas, and the hardline diplomacy they played in 2010 over the Fishing Boat Captain's capture for ramming Japanese Coast Guard vessels, from economic sanctions in the form of rare earth embargo and holding of Japanese nationals as hostages, quickly put that to rest. If you actually believe that there is a resurgence of the Japanese right, consider it a reaction to China's military assertiveness of late.

When you hear Chinese hardliners advocate "liberating" Okinawa, one cannot but feel the need to beef up defenses and secure one's borders.

It is very strange that The Economist should be so persistent on the differences between China and Japan.
Since the illegal "purchase" of the Diaoyu islands by the Japanese Prime minister, Noda, followed by a wave of protests in China a couple of weeks ago, The Economist has published no less than five articles on the matter. And now we have another article which focuses on Chinese nationalism and the undying hatred of the Chinese for the Japanese.
Is The Economist following a sinister agenda which aims at splitting the ties between China and Japan? It definitely seems to be the case. But then, who is behind this sinister scheme and what is the purpose?
There is no doubt that The Economist is one of the propaganda arms of the Western Governments in general and of the US Government in particular. Is the US the directing agency? It is to be noted that over the last eighteen months, the US had done everything to drive a wedge between the Asia Pacific countries and China. Though this campaign was not successful, yet it has not lost its tempo. Only the manner of conducting it has changed. Now, the US officials have taken a back seat while Japan, which is a vassal of the US, and the western media have moved upfront. The "purchase" of the islands and the numerous articles on the supposed Chinese nationalism and their hatred for the Japanese testify it.
The Chinese still remember the wrongs done by the Japanese to them, but the hatred has to a certain extent subsided over the years. It is not therefore necessary to bring it forth so frequently unless the aim is to further the policies of the Americans.

"There is no doubt that The Economist is one of the propaganda arms of the Western Governments in general and of the US Government in particular."

I have doubt. You could dispel it by offering credible and verifiable evidence.

"Is the US the directing agency?"

Notwithstanding that you appear to have already answered that question (with the first statement quoted above), what authority does the US have over the editorial policy of The Economist (n independent British magazine), by which it can "direct" it to do anything?

"It is to be noted that over the last eighteen months, the US had done everything to drive a wedge between the Asia Pacific countries and China."

Which Asia / Pacific countries?

Do you have specific examples of actions which constitute this "wedge"?

Basically, the situation is the following: Mao set on his hands during the Japanese invasion, and in the earlier years, when memories of his military tactics - and a much more brutal Civil war, where the Nanjing would barely register - heck, it is a footnote to what was happening on Eastern front during the invasion of USSR by Hitler troops - were still fresh, summoning Nanjing would be a political suicide for Commies.

However, once a new generation or two sprouted, which would believe whatever lies the Commies would tell their cattle, it would be beneficial not only to play China as a victim in every single conflict of the last two centuries - Boxer "rebellions" included, where blood-thirsty Chinese butchered every single person in Catholic missions - but to explain away failed Communist policies of the post-WWII decades with "Japanese war crimes" and look the other way.

Propaganda, plain and simple. If China was to follow a more humanist approach towards human life, not only it would denounce Mao, but the late Chinese emperors as well, as the ways in which they were treating Chinese people were outright cruel.

O Lordy... The fact that you would equate the Boxers with the military onslaught executed by Western powers and the Japanese against a moribund China just shows how much you are out of touch.

Yes, there was once a grass-roots movement that turned violent on foreign nationals, which the Qing regime was happy to make use of. Does that somehow wash the colonial powers clean?

Does that reverse the entire relationship between China and the West/Japan during the period? Do the Boxer's violent actions transform China into the victimizer in this relationship? Decades before Nanking, Japan executed a massacre in Port Arthur (now Lüshun, Liaoning). Does anything that China did to Japan even come close to that?

And please name one specific example where China's post-war disasters were blamed on the Japanese. Was the "Great Leap Forward" blamed on the Japanese? Not according to China's official story. Neither was the Cultural Revolution "explained away" by Japanese aggression. Japan did not even figure into these man-made tragedies. In fact, the countries did not have official ties until 1972, the year of the Kakuei Tanaka visit.

Please include quotes to support your claims. Imaginary and presumed instances do not count.

Yes, basically, I absolutely agree with you: there is no way of equating the bloodthirsty terrorists with a Chinese supremacy bent that did ethnic cleansings with European powers that, basically, followed the rules of war of the time - which didn't prohibit looting, but where killing every single Christian was a big no-no.

There was nothing colonial about the responce to Boxer "rebellion". Not more than stopping the Holocaust. The atrocities committed by Boxer "rebels" were awful, and I'm not the tiny bit surprised if the responce was at times a bit too harsh and even received some criticism from the West - because it is easy to criticize your own soldiers if you don't see kids tortured to death like they do.

Oh, I see. So according to you:
1) The Boxer Rebellion changed everything: Never mind how many wars of aggression were waged by Western powers to carve up China; the moment these peasants started to attack Westerners, China became the offender, even though the Boxers were not even part of the official army.
2) Chinese peasants started to fight against foreign presence in their country, they were terrorists.
3) Europeans started wars on Chinese soil, they were heroic defenders of civilization, just the good guys helping their Christian brethren.
4) Only Christian lives matter.
I see the difference now. We obviously don't live in the same universe.

"Propaganda, plain and simple. If China was to follow a more humanist approach towards human life, not only it would denounce Mao, but the late Chinese emperors as well, as the ways in which they were treating Chinese people were outright cruel."

And by your logic then all European nations should be denouncing their brutal imperialist former kings and queens, and the Americans should be denouncing their slave-owning founding fathers, but hey you don't see that happening.

When was the last time a nation, any nation in the history of humanity, ever denounced a founding member of that nation? Never happened.

Take an insight from the history textbook in China, it's a common trick for the regime to creat public focus through mass media. Months ago, Hong Kong protested on the government's project to introduce patriotism education on primary school textbook, stateing that the mainland regime would get its way on propagating its value on Hong Kong's new generation. To look at the world from a broader view, it is indispensable for Chinese to hear voices from different standings.

Of all my years of watching China historical dramas, the Japanese are always portrayed as arch-villians. Luckily, the Westerners are only just plain villians.

Actually, I think I remember a Westerner portrayed as good in one series in which a Jesuit missionary brought quinine to China. However, I am not sure which drama series that was. And, the Jesuit missionary role was very very brief.

The real issue here is what was behind the terrible actions of those times (1937-1945). Most of the Japanese army soldiers who commited the atrocities in Nanjing were peasant farmers and fisherfolk who were taught that the Emperor was God. And when the voice of God (or those who speak in his name) promoted nationalism, then the result was potent. We saw the results of that in China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Island nations (i.e, Phillipines) when nationalism became militarism. But it wasn't inevitable, as the split over imperialist army policy between Matsuoka and Prince Konoe showed. Both used this nationalism influence, but differed over how far to go. But once the army went into Manchuria, that die was cast. The CCP is treading a dangerous path with the nationalism card.

No. I dont agree. You have put the cart in front of the horse. You have totally ignored the wish of 1.3b to press CCP to do something to stop the aggression of Japan. Benevolence and patience should have the limitation in themselves. Japan is a country dont deserve too much of these. Japan needs to be stopped and booted.

China lost 10-20 million in the war and Nanjing had 200,000 casualties in 8 weeks. The Siege in Leningrad was two and a half years. If they had lost people at the same rate as Nanjing, 872 days would have seen 3.5 million people dead instead of 1 million.

Also unlike Nanjing, Leningrad wasn't captured. As far as WW2 goes, people generally accept civilian casualties inflicted against an enemy still resisting. (The Allied firebombing of Tokyo or Dresden and the atomic bombs are thus deplored but accepted. The siege of Leningrad would fall under this category.) For any of those to rival Nanjing, the Americans would have had to capture Tokyo and then decide to blow up an atomic bomb there anyway.

Atrocities committed against a surrendered population are generally viewed as more heinous.

The other thing that made it "special" was the manner of the deaths, the widespread rape and individual murder.

Certain aspects of the Japanese war should be more prominent but aren't. The Japanese were the only WW2 combatant to deploy mustard gas and they also intentionally spread bubonic plague. Two things that the Germans did not do. But since they only did these things when fighting Chinese armies, they don't get much attention in the West.

I agree with you in part, Sherbrooke. I am also thinking of Stalingrad and Dresden for WWII. Stalingrad's death toll really was 1 million plus. However, Dresden's offical losses from the fire bombing was set around 25,000, yet the official propaganda (and still held by German fringe groups) set it at 500,000. Nevertheless, whether Nanjing's massacre was "engineered" is almost irrelevant, as the Nanjing incident is real and manipulable in the minds of the populace. The Japanese government has by and large aknowledged the "massacre" there, but their fringe revisionists only give weight to the populist revanchism in mainland China.

Yingnam, Read Sherbrooke's posts here for perspective. That the Japanese were guilty of terrible things in China is beyond dispute. But manipulating nationalist sentiment for events of seven decades ago will not accomplish anything. Its entirely legitimate to press claims over territorial disputes such as the Daiyo/Senkaku islands. Indeed, China has a better claim in the estimation of many. But fanning the flames for domestic political ends is a proven historical path of dangerous precedent. Modern Japan's recalcitrance is not the same as international agression. There is nothing in the recent past to be "stopped and booted"; just held up to just inspection in the court of international diplomacy and current disputes settled properly.

Japan has to learn from Germany. Germans apologized, and apologized...but anyway they rule the whole economy of Europe today and draft the regulation that Europe will follow.

Meanwhile, Japan doesn´t apologize so much but it is under the military occupation of thousands of U.S. troops, with a limited Defense, just an American Protectorate....

It would be better for Japanese to apologize to Chinese and Russians, for example ending with any claim to those islands or to the Kuryle islands the same way as Germans don´t claim Dansk (Danzig), Kaliningrad (Könsberg) or Silesia, much larger and populated areas than the islands claimed by Japan.

Japan should learn from Germany and forget any claim to the Spratley or Kuryle islands, and accept its reality as a U.S. Protectorate without real military power, without its own Defense and without real Sovereignty. Recognizing that reality would be the first step.

your pen name sounds like spanish, but the contents of your post is as red as the chinese communist posters who are swaggering about here.
that nationalism is one of the two sides of the coin.
the other side is s inferior complex fueled by their defeat to japan, a small barbarian country in the view of Qing dynasty.

as TE rightly point out in the article, their nationalism against japan was to divert people's attention from Great Cultural Revolution in which the chinese killed millions of their fellow countrymen to other party.

if you read all those chinese poster swaggering about in TE are all in one color, one message that is hatred and abuse to japan, following the directives of the CCP.

Personally I think that Japan is right in their claims....but it doesnt matter because Japan lost WWII and its Sovereignty. Since WWII neither Japan nor Germany have been sovereign nations, so what they say about Defense is meaningless. It just doesn´t matter. They lost their historical rights. Germany accepted the new situation soon. They accepted to pay $ billions in reparation and to Israel, France and the USSR in exchange for some political recognition. They lost hundreds of factories and patents. They lost a third of its territory, from Köngsberg (Kaliningrad) to Danzig (Dansk) or Breslau (Wroclaw) They have supported the Russian Federation with $ billions in contracts and investment. Finally, Germany got to reunify with what was left from the Eastern part (just a shadow of what it was) and is accepted by its neighbors (France, Poland, Russia) as a reliable partner. Germay now has an enormous influence in the whole of Europe, from Spain to Russia, from the U.K. to Italy, from Greece to Ireland. Schroerder even could reject to participate in the invasion of Iraq by the U.S., and made Nord Stream a reality. Meanwhile, Japan is isolated in the Far East. Even Taiwan rejectes is claims over the islands. And Russia doesn´t accept any claim over the Kuryle islands...The present conflict between Japan and China is in fact, a good opportunity for German automakers (BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler), engeneer firms (Siemens, Bosch, Herrenknecht), cloth firms (Adidas, Puma) etc, etc. as Chinese are turning to German brands (or Korean brands in electronics)

Japan is not Germany. There was no Nazi party that took over & committed genocide against one ethnicity/race.
As far as apologies to the Russians go, it was the Soviet Union that attacked Japan in 1945, not the other way around! How about the 60,000 Japanese P.O.W.'s who died in Russian captivity, and the thousands of people who died and were raped in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria?
Stalin just wanted to get back at Japan for Russia loosing the war in 1904-1905.

Japan tried to attack Mongolia in 1939 in order that it could move westward to occupy vast area in Siberia. But Japan was defeated by overwhelming gun power of the Russians. Though both countries signed a truce agreement, they remained skeptic about each other. Japan's defeat marked a very important turning point in WWII. Russia could thus concentrate to fight with Germany in Europe while Japan was forced to turn south to attack Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and eventually the Pearl Harbour. Thence, US was "compelled" to declare war on Japan. So, when you said Russia retaliated only on the Russia's defeat in WWI, you have missed the Nomohan Incident in 1939 which in fact means a time bomb to detonate in due time.

Just a historical note, for completeness: remember that Germany was also occupied or a very, very long time -- by the Russians to the east and by the Americans/Nato to the west. To this day, I think there are just as many American GIs in Germany as there are in Japan.

"the Soviet invasion of Manchuria"... What a strange phrase... It was WWII, man... Japan was the one who invaded China and occupied Manchuria among many other lands in Asia. Soviet, China, US, etc. are on the same side. Don't you forget that? They are taking the lands they lost, so it was not an invasion. NE China ("Manchuria") needs to be returned to China as Cairo Declaration said. Plus, as yingnam mentioned, Japan didn't massively attack Soviet due to the Nomohan Incident in 1939.

Soviet were terrible in treating the Jap captives. I think Soviet owes Japan an apology for that. But it didn't make Soviet an invader.

Japan is not Germany. But no Nazi party didn't make Japan better than Germany. Nazis were just people. There are counterparts in Japan who stirred crazy expansionism and imperialism. Look at what damage Japan made in Asia and Pan-pacific. It is difficult to say Japan committed less crimes than Germany did. Japan used live people to test bio-weapons. In the guerrilla active areas, after a lot of frustrations, Japan found the best solution was to wipe out everything (killing all the population and burning down all the buildings) in the villages. Those villages just vanished. Well, it was part of wars. But the number of civil peoples Japan killed is in similar scale of that during a genocide, if not more.

Let's go back to enriquecost's comment. His points are actually quite interesting.

There is not doubt in my mind that the Chinese people hold history in high regard throughout history. Chinese people, especially the scholars, hold the history writers up to high standards. There have been numerous folk tales about how the history recorders wrote down the facts to the displeasure of the ruling emperors through out Chinese history. The Chinese live through their history, and to their benefit.

So the last paragraph, to me, is more a challenge to the Contemporary intellectuals than a condemnation of the Chinese way.

I do not agree with the comedization of the inhumane occupation of Japanese over China by Mr. Lui. The Japanese atrocious occupation of China is a serious subject and requires serious attitude.

Nanjing Massacre has been often used as a symbol of what the Japanese imperialism did through out China but the Japanese atrocities were not limited to Nanjing at all. I do not have personal experience related to that but I do have personal experience, through immediate elder generation, in the atrocities of what the Japanese did in other part of China towards civilians, the atrocities that still remembered and resented by ordinary Chinese people.

"the atrocities that still remembered and resented by ordinary Chinese people."

Just don't mention the tens of millions dead due to Mao's atrocities. The CCP is very selective about history. Japan's atrocities are constantly exposed but Mao's responsibility for the great leap forward and the cultural revolution are swept under the carpet. A friend of mine had both parents taken away during the cultural revolution. He never saw or heard of them again.

The Chinese people do remember the calamities caused by Mao. They do remember how the red guards roaming in the street. As bad as it was the Chinese people never saw their women gang-raped in front of their villages by the red guards.

Rapes were everywhere among the chinese. Large part of China in Qing Dynasty and before were under control of the local marauding bands from the northt the south. There were no rule of laws as the central governmen couldn't do anything.
if you read "wild swan" of jung chang, you would be surprised.
they do remember what? how the red gurds were roaming in the street? and they are forced to close their eyes to all those who became victims of those red gurds.
if japanese murdered chinese, it was a crime.
if chinese murdered chinese, it was a mistake.

Every time when people write to condemn Japan's atrocities done in China in WWII, a standard reply (actually not a reply) will pop up by the anti China camp to change the subject to Mao's mistakes, cultural revolution, high unnatural death toll and so on. Is it the only skill and manner to debate the issue initiated? If I assign the first subject of Japan's atrocities as Issue 1 and China's internal problem as Issue 2, should the debate be dealt with properly without crossing the line separating the two issues? I would assume that who ever chooses to cross the line lacks ammunition to defend. Its sad.

"Every time when people write to condemn Japan's atrocities done in China in WWII, a standard reply (actually not a reply) will pop up by the anti China camp to change the subject to Mao's mistakes, cultural revolution, high unnatural death toll and so on."

That is because, judging from the lack of voices against Mao and their existing henchmen in China, it is logical for anyone with any decent size of brain to assume that the Chinese custom and tradition either accept such a mass murderer as a normal form of ruler in China or that it is a common practice for the Chinese to (be easily manipulated to) become angry VERY selectively.

You must firt admit that massacres and rapes are universal phenomenon in the history of human being. they are not monopoly of Chinese, Japanese, Koreanss, Americans or Germans. Chinese were raped and massacred, Japanese were raped and massacred, Germans were also raped and massacred if not Americans. And as the writer here mentions, these were practiced by ordinary people in the course of wars and civil wars. Then how we should face these atrocities as Chinese, Japanese, Germans and Americans who all are not free from them.
The most of the Chinese posters here, who have mostly been planted nationalism very successfully by school education over and over under the policy of CCP, despite that most of them were not the direct victims of those incidents nowadays, are not free from viewing things without colored glasses of nationalism in a non-emotional manner. And it is exactly what CCP has intended.
As TE rightly mentions, there were no significant anti-Japanese education at schools during 50s, 60 and 70s, but then there was a swing in the 80s as “The government found nationalism to be a politically useful tool to rally support to a regime in crisis,” says Yinan He. Have you thought through this? Why the CCP changed the course? On the contrary since 1945, Japan has taken the course of teaching Peace Education. At school the Japanese children are not taught about nationalism or patriotism at all, zero. Quite a contrary to Chinese.
Mao told and wrote that he was thankful to Japanese as it was Japan who faought and reduced army and power of Kuo Ming Tan. This is partly a truth. By this Japan eventually contibuted to get rid of British, Dutch and French out from South East Asia and India, though it was not its original intention. So this was one of the reasons that there was not such propaganda of nationalism in the 50s,60s and 70s. There was a significant policy change in the 80s, as Mr.Yinan He says, in China which means CCP. I you have the freedom of thought, here is the point that you must think why.
Back to the main topic, Senkaku issue is a territorial issue which should be handled politically. While it is understadable that posters like you who are dyed-in-the-wool nationalists relate it to Japanese invasion of China, I do not agree that you relate it to the moral issue, like rape or massacre. When you charge the Japanese with massacre or rape, it should not be a political issue. That is why I remind you of your own massacres and rapes.
When you the Chinese charge that the Japanese have not regretted what they have done to Chinese with regards to rapes and massacres, I counter you how the Chinese regretted their rapes and massacres. You have built a museam for Nanjing incident which was built not only for memory of the massacre, but also for lifting nationalism and patriotism. One of the posters told me he has visited the museum several times.
Ordinary people do not visit such places several times, unless taken by schools, or otherwise sadist or masochist. Japanese schools do not take pupils or students to Yasukuni in education. I think you do not find Yasukuni in any textbooks for elevating nationalism or patriotism.

Yingnam is right on this one. Although both repressions and inhumanities are equally bad; it is primarily a matter of sovereignty. The Japanese were invaders trampling on Chinese sovereignty. While it does not excuse internal inhumanity, doing it on another's soil is a cardinal sin. That this occupation included incredibly bestial acts just makes it worse.

"There is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by force or threat by the Japanese military. If three is such evidence, South Korea should provide it." -- Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka, Japan

"There was no evidence to prove there was coercion as initially suggested. That largely changes what constitutes the definition of coercion, and we have to take it from there." -- Shinzo Abe, LDP leader, former prime minister of Japan, on the issue of comfort women during WWII

"There is no evidence to suggest that is the Japanese forcibly taken away by them. during difficult times, women sold themselves is a very profitable business. they voluntarily choose this business." -- Ishihara Shintaro, Governor of Tokyo, on the issue of comfort women

"There are many opinions about the so-called Nanjing incident. I have said I want to have a debate with people from Nanjing." -- Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Nagoya (former "sister city" of Nanjing) on the historical veracity of the Nanjing Massacre

it is most probable that the japanese massacred chines in nanjing, but the so called 300,000 number is still open to be proved.
i know how the hot head red chinese react to this sentence, but it is true.

I recall from a book I read years ago that the figure of 300,000 is the summation of various data provided by the particpating NGOs such as the Red Cross, etc. which actually conducted the clearance of bodies in Nanjing. The figure was not given by a bird watch kind of entity. Why still resist the figure and insist in the question? At any rate, it wont help lessen the pain and guilt.

Yes there are those people. All noted right wingers, and in no way represent the views of all Japanese or even the majority of Japanese. My point is you can cherry pick all you want.

There are equally compelling words of apology, including from the Emperor and top levels of government. More people are sensible than crazy. Unfortunately the crazy ones get picked up by the news, because it makes better headlines.

It really is worth noting that though it may not be seen as adequate, I believe that the majority of Japanese have acted in good faith regarding the past misdeeds and the Government's positions is pretty reasonable. No doubt more needs to be done in the coming decades, but it doesn't make sense to return everything to zero, every time some idiot says something stupid.

"Yes there are those people. All noted right wingers, and in no way represent the views of all Japanese or even the majority of Japanese."

Yes but many of them were elected to political offices. Some, have even been re-elected. Don't these guys speak for Japan? It's like having a sex offender be the principal of your kid's school. That's pretty messed up.

One can only imagine the chatters in the office: "These Chinese ingrates just would not stop portraying Japanese soldiers (and upstanding members of the opium-trading community) as villains... How infuriating! They had a human side too! We want balance!" Here is the same refrain: The masses in China just won’t get with the programme, always harping on their supposed "humiliation," while utterly forgetful of the sparks of nobleness among the aggressors that slaughtered their families and friends, all because of the distortions orchestrated by the government to deflect from their own failings. ("Honest textbooks!")

Obviously, the mind of ordinary Chinese is incapable of containing two ideas at the same time? If anti-Japanese sentiments are nothing but instruments of political distraction, they can't be very successful, are they? Otherwise, what's with all the "mass incidents," which number in the thousands yearly, that get the average Joes to take to the streets and protest against things totally unrelated to Japan? Then again, this is the publication that defends Britain's ignominious history in Asia on every occasion. The attitude in the article should surprise no one. It’s not enough that your forefathers torched their palace and robbed them of their treasures, you want these Asiatics to remember these acts fondly too.

Funny thing is, when these two films first came out, the French leftist magazine "Le Nouvel Observateur" contended that "City" did poorly at the box office because it was probably a staid propaganda piece commissioned by the government that parrots the party line, while "Flower" was so much more popular because the production tapped into history's commercial appeal (along with Western elements). Maybe you should give your French friends a call, and make a lovely afternoon out of it.

Hey, btw, do you still remember the construction workers and bystanders in Qiqihar who were harmed in 2003 by “gas bombs” left over from Japan’s occupation of China’s northeast? (Your writers described their plight as “grumbles” back then.)

They have yet to see a formal apology from the Japanese government. (And don’t even talk about compensation.) Their case files are rotting in a cabinet somewhere at a Tokyo court. The Japanese government, as usual, is in no hurry to disclose the possible locations of other leftover bombs, much less clean them up.

Why don't you visit some of these men (and a high school kid, who must be in his 20s now) and tell them to their face that they don’t have reasons to hate Japan, past and present.

That is because the Japanese Army was disbanded in 1945 and all of their equipment were confiscated by the Allied Powers i.e. in this case by the Chinese Nationalists. Maybe you haven't read much about it, but both Communists and Nationalists were very eager to recover everything available from the Japanese so that they would be able to eliminate their CHINESE enemies.

How could the author writting in such bias tone? Just because the out-of-date topic of ideology threaten the western?Considering what the difference attitude between Japanese and Germany towards their criminal of WWII, this phenomenon is resonable, which also may easily be taken advantage by the authorities. There is an old saying in China, the clearest eyes belong to the people. If the Japanese can be serious to what they have done, this problem will be a piece of cake.